The DFC (Democratic Freedom Caucus)

http://www.democraticfreedomcaucus.org/

DEMOCRATIC FREEDOM CAUCUS



Purpose:

The Democratic Freedom Caucus (DFC) is a progressive, pro-freedom caucus in the Democratic Party. The purpose of the DFC is to promote individual liberty, constitutional democracy, and social responsibility. Activities of the DFC include electoral campaigns, legislative advocacy, and education of the public.


Principles:

A) Personal Liberty

Freedom of speech, press, religion, belief, philosophy, lifestyle, and political activity. Individuals should have the freedom to engage in any activity that does not violate others' freedom. Liberty also includes the right to legitimate self-defense.



B) Economic Liberty

1) Property rights based on justice. There are two forms of property:

a) human-made products, such as cars, houses, and machinery; and

b) land, which refers to spatial locations, along with the natural resources within those locations. Each individual has the right to keep the rewards from his or her labor. However, since no person made the land, property in land needs to be treated somewhat differently from other types of property, to prevent over- concentrated ownership of land and natural resources.

Taxes on income, sales, or buildings all take away the rewards of labor, so they are the most harmful kinds of taxes. The least harmful tax is a tax on land location value or on extraction of natural resources, because those are not products of labor, but are fixed resources.

2) End corporate welfare. Government should not subsidize special interests. Licensing laws should not be monopolistic.

3) Consumer protection. There should be strong laws against business fraud and false advertising.

4) Worker protection. There should be strong laws against fraud in employment practices, such as misleading workers about the safety of work environments.

5) Environmental protection. There should be strong laws against polluting the air or water that others must use. Government should not subsidize developers.

6) Free trade between free countries. We should phase in free trade with other free countries at the same time that we are phasing in freedom within our own country, by removing the obstacles that hinder productivity here. It is unjust to allow imports of foreign products made with slave labor (in countries with very little freedom, the workers' lack of freedom can sometimes border on slavery).



C) Limited Government.

1) Essential government services. Government should only provide those services that cannot be provided adequately by the non-government sector at this time, and which are necessary for the public interest. Government should not provide any services that can be provided adequately by the non-government sector.

2) Government incentives. For those essential services that need to be provided by government, we should attempt to introduce incentives for government efficiency.

3) Constitutional democracy. The U.S. Bill of Rights (the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution) should be enforced. Government at any level should have a clear bill of rights, which should be enforced.

4) Jury rights. The right to a genuine trial by jury is one of the most important means of preventing government from violating its constitution and individual rights. Juries should be informed of their traditional right to judge the constitutionality of a law, in addition to judging the facts, as applied to a specific case. Neither prosecution nor defense should be allowed to pack a jury so as to make it biased or unrepresentative.

5) U.S. defense, not world police. The military should defend the territory of the U.S., rather than being the world's policeman. Our military should certainly not be used to prop up foreign dictators, or to subsidize multinational corporations.



D) Social Responsibility

In cases of essential services, such as infrastructure or assistance for the needy, there should only be cuts in these services if adequate services can be provided in the non-government sector. Recipients of government assistance also have a responsibility to help themselves if they are able. A goal of government assistance should be to try to get people to the point where they can take care of themselves, if at all possible.

for more information, contact:
Democratic Freedom Caucus
email DFC
WWW <http://www.democraticfreedomcaucus.org>

The Bill of Rights -- have you read it recently?

People seem to forget a lot of these -- so it's always a good idea to re-read them.

The Bill of Rights:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment III

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Amendment VI

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

Amendment VII

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

Amendment VIII

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

Amendment IX

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Let's add the 14th Amendment as well ... it's another important one...

Amendment XIV

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Section 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Our government doesn't exactly conform to most of these, now, does it? And both the "Right" and the "Left" want "Government" to do things that it is explicitly forbidden to do. There is a reason that the US is a Republic, and not a Democracy -- in a Democracy, 51% of the people can take away the rights of 49% of the people.

FactCheck.org MoveOn.org Social Security Ad

FactCheck.org MoveOn.org Social Security Ad: "Summary

MoveOn.org launched a false TV ad in the districts of several House members, claiming through images and words that President Bush plans to cut Social Security benefits nearly in half. Showing white-haired workers lifting boxes, mopping floors, shoveling and laundering, the ad says 'it won't be long before America introduces the working retirement.'
Actually, Bush has said repeatedly he won't propose any cuts for those already retired, or near retirement. What MoveOn.org calls 'Bush's planned Social Security benefit cuts' is actually a plan that would hold starting Social Security benefits steady in purchasing power, rather than allowing them to nearly double over the next 75 years as they are projected to do under the current benefit formula. The White House has discussed such a proposal, and may or may not adopt it when the President puts forth a detailed plan expected in late February"

False Attacks Over "Windfalls" to Wall Street

More verification of the False Information propogated by opponents of Social Security reform.

(Of course, none of this address the basic moral issues of the government running a Ponzi scheme.)

False Attacks Over "Windfalls" to Wall Street: "Summary

New information turned up by FactCheck.org shows that the type of private Social Security accounts being proposed by President Bush would yield very little profit to the securities industry, contrary to persistent claims of a potentially huge 'windfall' to Wall Street.
What we have discovered is that the model for Bush's accounts -- the Federal Thrift Savings Plan for federal workers -- actually paid securities firms a net total of only 16 cents for every $10,000 in workers accounts. The TSP had refused to make that information public -- until now. It shows that fees actually being paid to Wall Street are hundreds of times smaller than some critics had assumed.
For that reason and others we find that ads run in Louisiana by the liberal Democratic group Campaign for America's Future are grossly misleading. The group is accusing Republican Rep. James McCrery, who is chairman of the Social Security subcommittee and a supporter of Bush's private accounts, of 'corruption' for accepting campaign donations from Wall Street, which it falsely claims will 'profit most' from private accounts."

How Tyranny Came to America

How Tyranny Came to America

A must read.

HR 418-� A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform

HR 418-� A National ID Bill Masquerading as Immigration Reform

Ron Paul speaking on HR 418.

"NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE" | Patridiot Watch

"NOTICE OF REVOCATION OF INDEPENDENCE" | Patridiot Watch

Ah, John Cleese.

Congressional Sadists

Congressional Sadists

Move tax day to the day before election day. And for good measure, abolish withholding. Imagine if people trudged to the polls the day after sending fat checks to the IRS. That might bring the incumbents down a notch.

Larry Summers

The New York Times > Business > Economic Scene: Some Economists Say the President of Harvard Talks Just Like Them: "Despite his caveats, some women's advocates were outraged that Dr. Summers entertained, let alone endorsed the hypotheses that family arrangements or innate abilities might have anything to do with the success of women in science. Nancy H. Hopkins, a biology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has campaigned for more hiring and promotion of female professors, walked out on his remarks and later told reporters, 'I felt I was going to be sick.'"

It's a very sorry commentary on the state of our society when there can't be even a hypothesis that has overtones of political incorrectness and suggesting that there are innate physiological and psychological differences between the males and females. Yet it's a scientific fact that on average, a larger percentage of male brains is gray matter, and a larger percentage of female brains is white matter. There are a number of psychiatric disorders (Borderline Personality Disorder and Bi-Polar Affective Disorder, to name two) that affect 2 to 4 times as many women as men. But men are much more likely to suffer from autism.

Don't ever let the Left try to tell you they are any more tolerant of diversity than the Right. They're both threats to liberty (Freedom from undue government influence) and free inquiry. They're just as likely to use bogus numbers and fear tactics (witness the Social Security debates....how about we be honest and say that it's a Ponzi scheme and a wealth transfer from the young to the old, and completely unsustainable -- it was never meant to be the sole source of retirement income, but that's what it seems to be in people's minds....